On his last visit in May, Gambari was the first outsider in more than two years to meet Suu Kyi, confined to her lakeside villa with her telephone disconnected and few visitors allowed by the military.

On Saturday evening a three-car convoy arrived at Gambari's guest house, a short drive from Suu Kyi's home. The cars with blacked-out windows left about one hour later.

Earlier, the Nigerian envoy had flown to the new jungle capital, Nay Pyi Taw, for talks with Than Shwe and other senior generals. Details of their discussions are not known.

State media has reported little of Gambari's visit at a time when the regime is under scrutiny by the U.N. Security Council, which held its first official session on Myanmar in September.

Washington has said it would press for a Council resolution to put pressure on a regime it calls an "outpost of tyranny."

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During his 4-day visit, Gambari has pressed for the release of political prisoners, better access for humanitarian aid, and an "all-inclusive and transparent" roadmap to democracy.

"Mr. Gambari stressed that there can be no development without peace, no durable peace without sustainable development and neither peace nor development without democratization and respect for human rights," a statement by the U.N. office in Yangon said on Friday.

Before meeting Suu Kyi, Gambari heard from leaders of her party. "We told him that we want to solve the problems through dialogue," NLD spokesman U Myint Thein told Reuters.

The NLD is boycotting the constitution-drafting National Convention, the first stage in the junta's 7-step democracy roadmap announced in 2003, while Suu Kyi is detained.

Critics dismiss the Convention as a smokescreen for the military to entrench more than four decades of rule.

Another goal of the visit is to improve aid access to Myanmar, where activists say 500,000 refugees in eastern jungle conflict zones are cut off from international aid.

The U.S. Campaign for Burma says more than 3,000 villages have been burned or relocated in a government offensive launched last year in eastern Myanmar, where civil war has raged for decades.

"The world knows what is happening in Darfur and they know what took place in Rwanda," Campaign leader Cristina Moon said in a statement. "But the destruction of 3,000 villages in eastern Burma is perhaps the world's least-known major disaster."